On April 27, President Obama’s fiscal commission convened its first meeting, kicking off a seven-month discussion among 18 panelists on ways the federal government can reduce the federal budget deficit and shrink the national debt. The next day, many of those same panel members, including co-chairs Erskine Bowles and former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-WY), attended a "Fiscal Summit" organized by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation to discuss the same issues. Talk about how to overcome deficits and the debt at the Peterson event, which centered on eviscerating the nation's social safety net, mirrored discussion at the commission meeting.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released its plan for improving the agency's transparency as part of the Obama administration's Open Government Directive (OGD). The EPA was an early proponent of the new openness agenda, with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson calling for the agency to operate "as if it were in a fishbowl." The agency's new Open Government Plan documents numerous ongoing and future actions that should continue the agency's advance toward transparency and accountability.

Of the $38.6 billion worth of contracts and grants obligated to Iraq and Afghanistan during fiscal year 2008 and the first half of fiscal year 2009 by the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of State (State), and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), roughly $1 billion went to contractors to help administer some of the contracts and grants. A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report finds that DOD, State, and USAID often enter into these administration contracts haphazardly without checking for potential conflicts of interest or ensuring adequate oversight.